March 30. On this date in 1937, Hooper Dunbar was born in Los Angeles. He worked as an actor prior to leaving Hollywood for Central America in 1958. Hooper Dunbar served as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Nicaragua from its inception in 1961 to 1963, when he represented that Assembly at the first International Convention in Haifa, Israel. Subsequently, he was appointed as an Auxiliary Board for the Protection of the Faith in the Americas and served from 1963 to 1968, and then as a Counsellor for the Protection and Propagation of the Faith from 1968 1973, also for the Americas. He took up residence in Israel in 1973 when he was named as one of the founding members of the International Teaching Centre. Mr. Dunbar served as a member of that institution for fifteen years, until he was elected to the Universal House of Justice in 1988 and retired from that body in 2010.

 

March 30. On this date in 1937, Hooper Dunbar was born in Los Angeles. He worked as an actor prior to leaving Hollywood for Central America in 1958. Hooper Dunbar served as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Nicaragua from its inception in 1961 to 1963, when he represented that Assembly at the first International Convention in Haifa, Israel. Subsequently, he was appointed as an  Auxiliary Board for the Protection of the Faith in the Americas and served from 1963 to 1968, and then as a Counsellor for the Protection and Propagation of the Faith from 1968 1973, also for the Americas. He took up residence in Israel in 1973 when he was named as one of the founding members of the International Teaching Centre. Mr. Dunbar served as a member of that institution for fifteen years, until he was elected to the  Universal House of Justice in 1988 and retired from that body in 2010.

His career is typical for individuals in the Bahá’í hierarchy, whether in an elected office or in an appointed offce from which the higher elected officials invariably come from. 

At all levels, including the LSAs, Bahá’í leaders are generally as authoritarian, if not more, than clergy from other religious faiths, which as Dale Husband points out, is one of the Four Ways to Create a Religion of Hypocrites:

1. State that religion no longer needs clergy……and replace them with leaders that are as authoritarian as the clergy ever was.

2. Claim that men and women should be equal……but then deny women membership in the all-powerful leadership council of the religion.

3. Condemn as heretics those who believe in your religion but dare to challenge the claims of your religion’s current leadership, while at the same time claiming to welcome as friends the followers of other religions.

4. Claim there is harmony between science and religion, but also claim that anything your leaders say is absolutely true, even if on topics science is expected to address.

Any one of these makes a religion not worth following, but what do you do if you find a religion that has all four such contradictions